Unlike the sunshine of yesterday, it was rather overcast first thing this morning so it was another leisurely start to the day which was actually very nice.
We decided to drive inland to the little town of Silves which we had visited on our last trip to the Western Algarve back in 2001! It was also where we had originally planned to stay but I am glad we settled on Alvor as it is a lovely little town with a lot to offer out od season. Using my GPS coordinates we found the free car park next to some gardens and then headed off up into town, stopping for a pingado before tackling the castle. It really is an impressive place on the brow of the hill with an excellent vantage point and a lot of Roman ruins within the castle grounds. We walked the castle walls which were quite precarious before wandering back down to a small restaurant that Colin had noticed when we had our coffees earlier on.
It was a very good choice with an excellent menu. I started with some of the best garlic prawns I have had followed by the Portuguese speciality Iberian black pork and clams with little roast potatoes. We sat next to a german couple during lunch and were chatting about our trip to Germany last year. They were quite funny and good fun. For the second time in a few years we wanted to try and find the old fish stalls that used to be on the quayside of Portimao. Last time we had not found them and this time, despite a better parking space, it was failure again. It appears that the entire area has been through some form of gentrification and now there are just a few cafes and restaurants in the area, all of which were closed as out of season. It was quite a disappointment.
I was in the driving seat and as the sun had come out, I decided to try and have on elast session of photographing the sunset in Alvor. The trouble was that sunset was in twelve minutes and the journey was showing as taking fifteen! As it was not our suspension I was threatening, we took it ‘briskly’ and although we arrive literally a minute or so after the sun had dipped below the horizon, it was still a spectacular sunset, even better that when we had first arrived because of the cloud.
When I had finished we drove at a more sedate speed back to the apartment. We were so stuffed after our massive lunch that we could only manage a few nibbles… an a glass of wine later in the evening!
